3 Yemenis sue NASA for trespassing on Mars

They say they inherited it 3,000 years ago

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- No one expects to lose much sleep over it
but, for the record, NASA has been sued by three men from
Yemen for invading Mars.

The three say they own the red planet, and claim they have
documents to prove it.

"We inherited the planet from our ancestors 3,000 years ago,"
they told the weekly Arabic-language newspaper Al-Thawri,
which published the report Thursday.

Adam Ismail, Mustafa Khalil and Abdullah al-Umari filed the
lawsuit in San'a, Yemen, and presented documents to the
country's prosecutor general which they say proves their
claim. There was no word on whether they had paid the
appropriate inheritance taxes.

The claim is prompted, apparently, by the exploration of Mars
by NASA's Pathfinder spacecraft and Sojourner rover, which
have been sending back photos and data for analysis since
early July.

"Sojourner and Pathfinder, which are owned by the United
States government, landed on Mars and began exploring it
without informing us or seeking our approval," the men
charge.

They demand the immediate suspension of all operations on
Mars until a court delivers a verdict. They also ask that
NASA refrain from disclosing any information pertaining to
Mars' atmosphere, surface or gravity before receiving
approval from them, or until a verdict is reached.

'It's a ridiculous claim'

"It's a ridiculous claim," NASA news chief Brian Welch told
CNN Thursday after smothering a chuckle. "Mars is a planet
out in the solar system that is the property of all humanity,
not two or three guys in Yemen."

Richard Cook, the Pathfinder mission manager at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, agreed. "It's
everybody's," he said. "Mars is for the whole world to
explore and to understand."

Welch says a 1967 international treaty holds that everything
in the solar system, except Earth itself, is the property of
everyone in the world and no one country.

"Just because we land on Mars first doesn't mean the United
States owns it," he said.

Welch said he thought the issue could get more serious in the
future "when people actually are going to these places and
the resources found have some value. ... More complicated
issues will have to be resolved between countries, or between
companies."

Taking the opportunity to clear the air on another galactic
real estate matter, Welch said he knew of no plans to take
legal action against a man who has been selling deeds to
property on the moon.

Welch said the deeds are as worthless as the Yemenis' claims.
"That's why they invented the phrase 'Caveat emptor' [Let the
buyer beware]," he said.